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Articles about early-stage companies; pre-IPO, including those still being funded by angel investors, private equity or venture capitalists.
Robotics start-up AgiBot is attracting big-name investors amid China’s humanoid robot craze. Photo: Reuters
Robotics

Chinese robotics star Agibot adds JD.com as investor, joining Tencent

After a new funding round, e-commerce giant JD.com holds a 0.75 per cent stake in AgiBot, a high-flying start-up founded by Huawei veterans.

DeepSeek

China’s DeepSeek closes in on US rival OpenAI with upgraded model

DeepSeek

DeepSeek’s small update to R1 AI model draws big attention

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China manufacturing

More than a show: China’s robot fights offer ringside view of tech advancements

China’s humanoid robotic firms are looking to KO the competition, and what they learn in the ring looks to advance the robotics industry by leaps and bounds.

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Humanoid robots square off in a fight on Sunday in Hangzhou. Photo: Handout
Robotics

Ready, set, fight: Unitree humanoid robots test skills in kickboxing competition

Unitree fielded four G1 humanoid robots in one-on-one kickboxing matches at an event held in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang province.

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Robotics

Hong Kong surgical robot start-up Cornerstone takes aim at da Vinci

Company aims to raise US$70 million to develop its systems, which it claims rival the market-leading da Vinci units at lower cost.

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Robotics

Chinese robot firms dazzle at Macau’s Beyond Expo amid AI boom

The significant presence of robotics companies underscores the intense domestic competition in the rapidly growing sector.

Beijing’s Noetix Robotics showcases a robot head at Beyond Expo that can simulate human facial expressions. Photo: Xinmei Shen
Apple

Apple aims to launch smart glasses in 2026 in push into AI devices

The iPhone maker is looking to join the emerging trend of AI-powered devices – an area where it faces fresh competition.

Artificial intelligence

AI hardware start-ups get fresh boost from Shenzhen’s US$1 billion funds

The Shenzhen government has launched funds of 5 billion yuan and 2 billion yuan dedicated to AI and robotics start-ups at the city’s AI expo.

Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek 2.0? Shanghai quant fund claims AI training breakthrough

Goku says in a paper submitted to the ‘AI Olympics’ that its training method is superior to those adopted by DeepSeek, OpenAI.

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Shanghai Goku Technologies, a quantitative fund, has established an AI subsidiary, following the path of Hangzhou-based DeepSeek. Photo: Screenshot
Artificial intelligence

OpenAI buys iPhone designer Jony Ive’s secretive hardware start-up

The ChatGPT maker wants its own hardware platform to avoid selling software through Apple iOS or Google’s Android, analysts say.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman. Photo: AFP
Artificial intelligence

Meet Chinese start-up Xreal, Google’s partner in AR glasses project

Project Aura provides a big boost to Xreal’s credentials in the smart glasses arena, while widening its reach in the international market.

Biomedicine: Companies

Chinese biotech firm secures Pfizer deal despite trade tensions

Pfizer will produce the drug, which targets lung and colorectal cancers, in the US and take a US$100 million stake in China’s 3SBio.

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Artificial intelligence

China accuses ‘AI tigers’ Zhipu, Moonshot of collecting excessive data

Zhipu’s ChatGLM and Moonshot’s Kimi have a combined total of nearly 35 million monthly active users.

Zhipu AI CEO Zhang Peng speaks on stage during the company’s developers’ day in Beijing in January 2024. Photo: Sohu/AGI元年
Artificial intelligence

Alibaba and DeepSeek’s home province aims to become AI hub through big spending

A new plan from the Zhejiang government will see billions of yuan spent through 2027 to support AI companies and attract ‘top talent’.

Workers at Hangzhou-based Deep Robotics debug a humanoid robot on February 28. Photo: Xinhua
Robotics

China’s industrial robot output soars, as Unitree and UBTech take lead

Production of industrial robots in April outpaced increases seen in earlier months amid national enthusiasm around the technology.

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Artificial intelligence

Hong Kong healthcare investor looks for biotech’s ‘DeepSeek moment’ in China

ORI Capital is planning a US$350 million fund to focus on Chinese biotech, with hopes that AI will help beat the market.

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DeepSeek

DeepSeek offers new details on using 2,048 Nvidia chips to train its V3 model

In a paper co-authored by founder Liang Wenfeng, the start-up attributes its success to a hardware-software co-design approach.

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In a paper co-authored by founder Liang Wenfeng, DeepSeek elaborated on some of the technology behind its foundational V3 model. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

Chinese AI stalwart Zhipu eyes expansion on back of Belt and Road Initiative

Zhipu AI’s plan reflects intensifying efforts by both Chinese and US companies to widen the global adoption of their AI systems.

Artificial intelligence

Alibaba pushes global adoption of Qwen3 AI models via more developer platforms

The Qwen3 family of AI models can now be deployed via large language model platforms Ollama, LM Studio, SGLang and vLLM.

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Artificial intelligence

China’s Manus AI makes registration free amid increasing AI agent competition

Manus has ended its invite-only approach after US$75 million in new funding, while facing increasing competition from tech giants.

China’s Manus AI is opening up registrations to everyone for free as it seeks to expand the use of its AI agents amid rising competition. Photo: Shutterstock
Artificial intelligence

China’s StepFun aims to stand out in AI race with multimodal models

Players in China’s AI industry are struggling to differentiate their products after DeepSeek’s success triggered a surge in reasoning models.

AI start-up StepFun is doubling down on multimodal models to stand out from the competition. Photo: Handout
Artificial intelligence

China’s humanoid robot makers lack unified ‘end-to-end’ AI system: Unitree CEO

That system allows robots to execute general tasks, which dispenses with running separate programs for specific activities.

Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s Quark, China’s most popular AI app, launches ‘deep search’

The upgrade combines the reasoning capabilities of AI models with online search to answer complex user queries.

DeepSeek

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng ‘takes no short cuts’, Li Auto CEO says

That assessment reflects how Liang, an ‘extremely self-disciplined person’, led DeepSeek to become a true innovator in AI.

DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng, in the background, follows an open-source approach in AI development. Photo: Shutterstock
Robotics

China’s Unitree fixes flaw that gives hackers remote control of robots

The start-up has downplayed the impact of the vulnerability, noting that the affected model has been discontinued.

Unitree’s Go2-W robot interacts with an attendee during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Photo: AFP
Artificial intelligence

DeepSeek’s AI system gets faster with Tencent’s open-source boost

The leading Chinese AI start-up has adopted an open-source technical solution from Tencent, leading to a ‘huge speed boost’.

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Artificial intelligence

Alibaba’s Qwen3 unseats DeepSeek’s R1 as world’s top-ranked open-source AI model

Qwen3 surpassed R1 in LiveBench tests that gauge open-source AI models’ capabilities including coding, maths and data analysis.

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